So if you need a little levity on a Tuesday morning, by all means set aside a few minutes to crash<\/a> and burn<\/a> with the \u2018bots<\/a>. That upcoming budget meeting doesn\u2019t seem so bad now, does it?\u00a0<\/p>\n Today\u2019s tech news below. \u2014Andrew Nusca<\/p>\n P.S. A hundred Whose Line Is It Anyway? points to the reader who can come up with the best name for a humanoid robot olympiad. The Clanker Championship? The Rust Bucket Bowl? Reply with your best shot and I might run it in a future edition.<\/p>\n Want to send thoughts or suggestions to\u00a0Fortune Tech?\u00a0Drop a line\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Anthropic\u2019s costly Claude Fable 5 hits a wall Samuel Boivin\/NurPhoto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n One of the world\u2019s mightiest AI companies released its mightiest model and adoption has been\u2026well, less than mighty.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t get me wrong: Anthropic\u2019s Claude Fable 5, one member of its feared and revered<\/a> Mythos-class model family, is surely raking in the dough, already representing 11% of corporations\u2019 Anthropic spend two months after its release. (Fable costs $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens.)<\/p>\n But that share of spend has stalled, according to data by payment processor Ramp<\/a>\u2014a sign that clients aren\u2019t so keen to automatically switch to the latest and greatest AI.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t let perfect be the enemy of good, companies seem to be saying. Especially in this economy.<\/p>\n \u201cIf sustained, the shift could radically alter the business model of frontier labs, which have until now funneled the bulk of their multibillion-dollar development spending towards training ever larger, more sophisticated models,\u201d notes the Financial Times. (Bingo.)<\/p>\n By Anthropic\u2019s own admission, its Claude Opus 5 comes close to Fable 5 at half the cost\u2014$5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens. The extra layer of sophistication that Fable offers? Not a game-changer for most, it seems.<\/p>\n Rival AI shop OpenAI seems to have come to this realization. That San Francisco company, which like Anthropic is on track for a record IPO, cut developer pricing by 20%<\/a> for its frontier AI model GPT-5.6 Sol, which now costs $4 per 1 million input tokens and $20 per 1 million output tokens.\u00a0<\/p>\n Let the AI pricing wars begin. \u2014AN<\/p>\n iPhone price hikes are a-comin\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Twas only two months ago that Apple raised prices on an array of products<\/a>, finally succumbing to rising component prices, namely memory chips.\u00a0<\/p>\n But iPhones\u2014which drive half the company\u2019s annual revenue\u2014were left untouched.<\/p>\n No longer, according to a new report. The folks in Cupertino, no doubt watching Google and Samsung raise prices by about $100 on their latest mobile gadgets, are reportedly preparing to hike iPhone prices in a bid to relieve profit margin pressure and maintain its preferred place amid the competition.<\/p>\n \u201cMatching [Google and Samsung] would put the iPhone 18 Pro at $1,199, up about 9%,\u201d reports Bloomberg<\/a>. \u201cGiven the severity of the memory crunch, that would be a fairly modest bump and suggest Apple is absorbing some of the added costs itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Apple Upgrade, the company\u2019s revamped device-leasing program<\/a>, could also help ease the pain. The new offering, which replaces the old iPhone Upgrade Program, features lower monthly payments than its predecessor by making it a true lease (rather than an installment plan to own) and dropping AppleCare+ as a bundled offering.<\/p>\n In the meantime, questions abound for Apple\u2019s highly anticipated foldable iPhone. Format novelty aside, how will an ultra premium device with an expected $2,000-or-more price tag play in a market where price sensitivity seems to be a top priority?\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u2019ll find out soon enough when Apple announces the date of its annual fall hardware event, a fast follow to incoming CEO John Ternus\u2019 first day in the gig. \u2014AN<\/p>\n Trump backs data center buildout as U.S. voters lose the faith<\/p>\n The American public may have mixed opinions about the impact of data centers on their communities, according to various polls<\/a> and surveys<\/a> about the topic, but the country\u2019s top executive is all for it.<\/p>\n In an interview published over the weekend<\/a>, U.S. President Donald Trump said that communities that \u201cdon\u2019t take a data center\u201d are \u201cmaking a mistake\u201d by rejecting \u201ctremendous amounts of jobs and money.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Trump made similar remarks<\/a> at the White House last week. \u201cIf I were the mayor of a town or the governor of a state, and I had a chance to get a big plant in, an AI plant or a data center,\u201d he said then, \u201cI would absolutely want it because the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous.\u201d<\/p>\n Those opposed to data centers cite rising electricity rates, substantial water use, and myriad environmental issues (heat, noise, emissions) as reasons for concern. According to Pew, the more Americans hear about data centers, the less likely they are to feel positive about them.<\/p>\n That matters in an election year. Trump isn\u2019t on the ballot in November, but 36 states will hold midterm elections, creating a sort of national referendum on the issue.<\/p>\n The objections to data centers run across the political spectrum. In recent weeks, states including New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas have imposed restrictions on cloud and AI data center buildouts. Meanwhile Arizona, Illinois, Michigan, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Virginia have either proposed or taken steps to slow down data center developers. \u2014AN<\/p>\n More tech<\/p>\n \u2014Taiwan indicts nine people<\/a>, including Nvidia and Super Micro employees, for allegedly helping illegally export AI servers to China.<\/p>\n \u2014AMD\u2019s x86 CPU share<\/a> crosses 30% for the first time, per Mercury Research.<\/p>\n \u2014Shein will make its market debut in Hong Kong on Sept. 1.<\/a> The retailer hopes to raise some $1.8 billion.<\/p>\n \u2014Alibaba shares plummet 10%<\/a> as the Chinese tech giant plans to raise another $10 billion to fund AI investments.<\/p>\n \u2014Iran-linked hackers shut down a U.K. power plant.<\/a> It\u2019s the latest in a wave of related attacks.<\/p>\n \u2014Luke Metz reportedly joins Meta.<\/a> The noted AI researcher left Thinking Machines for OpenAI earlier this year.<\/p>\n \u2014Expect Nvidia prices to jump 15%<\/a> on Rubin and Blackwell AI systems in 2027.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2280239160.jpg\"\/)
<\/a>Photo illustration: Samuel Boivin\/NurPhoto\/Getty Images<\/p>\n